Last Updated: October 24, 2026
This policy covers one app: Low Tide Explorer, the tide pool field guide and low-tide planner for the Pacific Northwest, on Android, iPhone and iPad. Our other apps are covered by the general Illumination Development privacy policy, which does not apply here. That policy describes accounts, reward balances and redemption records that this app does not have.
The short version
We never receive your logbook. There is no account and no sign-in of any kind. The creatures you mark as found, the tide station you pick and your settings are written to storage on your device and stay there. There is no sync, no cloud backup of ours and no server of ours at all.
The app collects nothing itself. It has no analytics and no crash reporting, and it makes no network requests of its own. The creature guide, its photos and the NOAA tide predictions are all bundled inside the app, so it works on a beach with no signal. The one thing that does leave the device is advertising: a single Google AdMob banner, described in full below, along with how to limit it.
What stays on the device
The app keeps these things on the phone or tablet:
- Your finds — which creatures you marked as found, with the date and the tide station you had chosen at the time.
- Your tide station — the station you picked from the list, so the Tides tab opens on it next time.
- One setting — whether “show all coasts” is on.
None of it is transmitted anywhere by the app, and there is no profile. If the device backs itself up to iCloud or to Google, that copy is governed by Apple's or Google's terms and your own backup settings, and we have no access to it.
Looking up a creature, reading a tide table or planning a trip does not contact anyone. Because the copy on your device is the only copy there is, deleting the app removes all of it.
Advertising
The app is free and carries advertising from Google AdMob and no one else. There is one banner, at the foot of the Tides tab and the Logbook tab. There is no advertising on the shore guide or on a creature's page, which are the screens a family looks at out on the rocks. There are no full-screen or rewarded advertisements. There is nothing to buy.
To serve advertisements, the Google Mobile Ads SDK contacts Google and may collect device and advertising information:
- an advertising identifier (Google's advertising ID on Android, and Apple's Identifier for Advertisers on iPhone and iPad if you allow it);
- device signals;
- the IP address and an approximate location Google derives from it;
- the request, impression and click themselves.
We never see this identifier, and it is not connected to anything in your logbook.
Advertisements in this app can be personalized, where the law and your choices allow it. The choices below are how you limit it. Google's use of the information it collects is described in how Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services and governed by Google's privacy policy.
On iPhone and iPad: the tracking prompt
The app shows Apple's App Tracking Transparency prompt at launch, before any advertisement is requested. If you choose Ask App Not to Track, AdMob never receives Apple's Identifier for Advertisers and the banner continues without it. The app works the same either way. You can change your answer at any time under iOS Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking.
On Android: the advertising ID
The app does not ask for any runtime permission. The advertising-ID permission is present, because the Google Mobile Ads SDK declares it, and it is used for advertising. You can reset or delete your advertising ID, or opt out of personalized ads, in your device's settings. On most phones that is Settings → Privacy → Ads, or Settings → Google → Ads.
In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland
Where a consent regime applies, Google's consent message is shown at launch, before any advertisement is requested. It asks for your choices about personalized advertising and the storing of and access to information on the device.
You can change your answer at any time: Logbook → Privacy choices reopens the same choices. That row appears only where Google reports that a consent regime applies, which is why people elsewhere will not see it. Your consent decision is stored on your device by Google's consent SDK.
Erase my logbook
Logbook → Erase my logbook asks you to confirm. Then it permanently deletes every find, your chosen tide station and the “show all coasts” setting, immediately and without asking us. There is no account to delete, because the app never had one. There is nothing to ask us to remove, because we never had a copy. Deleting the app deletes the same things.
What the app does not do
- No account, sign-in, username or profile.
- No analytics, no crash reporting and no server of ours. The app makes no network requests of its own; the only network traffic is Google's, for the banner.
- No location permission. You choose a tide station from a list; the app never asks where you are.
- No camera, photo library, contacts or microphone. The creature photos are bundled in the app.
- No upload or sync. Your logbook never leaves the device.
- No rewards, no coins, no in-app purchases and nothing for sale.
- No chat, no multiplayer, and no way to reach another person through the app.
- No advertising network other than Google AdMob.
- We do not sell personal information. The advertising described above may count as sharing for cross-context behavioral advertising, in the sense the CCPA and CPRA give that term. You can limit it by declining the tracking prompt, resetting or deleting your advertising ID, and opting out of personalized ads.
Children
Low Tide Explorer is made for families to use together at the shore. It is a general-audience app and is not directed at children. It is not in the App Store's Kids category. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children, and the app itself collects none from anyone. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, write to privacy@illuminationdevelopment.com and we will delete it.
Your rights
Under the GDPR, the UK GDPR, the CCPA and CPRA, and comparable laws elsewhere, you have rights to access, correct, port and delete the personal information a company holds about you. We hold none from this app: everything it keeps is on your device, and you can erase it yourself with Erase my logbook. If you have a question about any of it, write to privacy@illuminationdevelopment.com.
Information held by Google from serving advertisements is subject to Google's privacy policy and the controls described above.
Content credits
This is not a privacy matter, but people ask. The creature photos were taken by iNaturalist observers and are used under CC0 and CC BY licenses. Each photographer is credited in the app. The tide predictions come from NOAA and are bundled in the app. They are predictions, not for navigation: check the conditions on the day and keep an eye on the water.
A note about this web page
This website uses Google Analytics to see which pages people find useful. That is described in the general policy, and it applies to your visit to this page, not to your use of the app.
Changes to this policy
If any of this stops being true, this page changes before the version that changes it reaches either store. The App Store privacy label and Google Play Data safety form change with it. Revisions are posted here with an updated date.
Contact
Email: privacy@illuminationdevelopment.com
You can also reach us through our contact and support page.